Vijaya Dairy in talks for Europe foray

Holds parleys with Bahrain-Danish Dairy for marketing tie-up

Vijaya Dairy, the second biggest dairy in Andhra Pradesh, is in talks with a Bahrain-based company "� Bahrain Danish Dairy "� for a tie-up to market its milk and milk products in Europe and Russia.

Vijaya Dairy, which is run by the Krishna District Milk Producers' Mutually Aided Co-operative Union Limited, expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 131 crore this fiscal. It plans to launch a mango drink and a 200 ml tetra-pack-milk priced at Rs 8 during the Dasara festival.

Speaking to Business Standard, Milk Union chairman M Janaki Ramaiah said that the Danish dairy had taken samples of Vijaya milk and other products for testing their quality and shelf life. The union recently exported its first consignment of 18 tonnes of Vijaya ghee worth Rs 22.5 lakh to Dubai.

"The dairy, which has a Rs 1,000 crore grassroot-level production base, is set to achieve a turnover of Rs 131 crore this year through the sale of Vijaya milk and milk products. It has targeted to procure, on an average, 1,76,000 litres of milk per day and sell 1,38,000 litres. Last year, its business touched Rs 121 crore with an average daily milk procurement of 1,63,794 litres and sale of 1,21,697 litres. It paid Rs 68 crore to 1,18,700 farmer-members of 630 dairy co-operatives in 900 villages of Krishna and West Godavari districts for milk procured from them," Ramaiah said.

The dairy pays the highest milk procurement price of Rs 19 per litre in the state, which is also the second highest in the country, he added.

Ramaiah said that the union would soon take up online business in three phases, with financial assistance coming from the National Dairy Development Board too.

Elaborating on Vijaya Dairy's initiatives, he said, "It is the first dairy, to market 10 varieties of liquid Vijaya milk, to establish powder plant, to obtain ISO 9001:2000 and HACCP certification, to market sterilised cream and liquid ice cream in tetra brik packs and the first to introduce curd and 'basundi' in cups."

He said, "The dairy operates through a modern milk-production factory, six chilling centres, 35 milk procurement routes, 27 milk distribution routes, 700 booths and 300 round-the-clock chain parlours in the two districts. It also runs two feed-mixing plants with a capacity to supply 48 tonnes of quality livestock feed per day. It has achieved the highest milk handling level of 3.25 lakh litres per day, as against the installed capacity of 2.5 lakh litres."

He said that the union recently launched a fodder bank with 100 farmers, who set up satellite fodder farms in 25 centres each. After 60 days of cultivation, fodder was supplied to another 10 farmers. This way the number of fodder plots have gone up to 1,000. The scheme has solved fodder scarcity problem and hereafter fodder would be made available to farmers during the summer too.

The union also produced 400 tonnes of high-yielding jowar fodder seeds and distributed 150 tonnes to farmer-members. It then supplied surplus seeds to milk unions in Karnataka, Goa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Ongole and Nellore, and to the Animal Husbandry Department.

The union encourages cow milk production by offering higher purchase price compared to buffalo milk. Bulk cooling systems, automated milk collection station, 474 electronic milk testers have been arranged for member co-operatives. The co-operatives donate funds for development of roads, schools, community halls, veterinary hospitals and libraries in villages.